Always Offered the Appearance of Justice in a System of Injustice: Georgia AG asks [Racists at] the Justice Dept to Probe Murder of Black Jogger & Assigns [Rookie DA] Black Woman to the Case

/
holmes da.jpg

SOUNDS GOOD [law as image in the Spectacle Society.] From [HERE] Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr on Monday tapped a new lead prosecutor in the murder case of Ahmaud Arbery — the fourth since the young black man was killed in February while jogging in Glynn County, Ga. 

Joyette Holmes, district attorney of the Cobb County Judicial Circuit and the first black woman to serve in that position, is taking over the case following a video of the shooting that went viral after it was posted online last week. The footage ignited national outcry and a cascade of questions over why no arrests were made in the 10 weeks since Arbery's Feb. 23 killing.

Meanwhile Carr formally requested the Justice Department to investigate the handling of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery's case, whose death ignited widespread outrage after local authorities waited more than two months to arrest suspects. 

“We are committed to a complete and transparent review of how the Ahmaud Arbery case was handled from the outset,” Carr said in a Sunday statement. “The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers, and we will work with others in law enforcement at the state and federal level to find those answers.”

Arbery, 25, was shot to death Feb. 23 near Brunswick, Ga., while jogging. It’s not in dispute who killed him: Two white men, Gregory McMichael and his son Travis McMichael, have acknowledged doing so. But they claimed they had reason to suspect Arbrey of wrongdoing, and that he had been shot in an altercation with them.

However, a graphic video surfaced on May 5 showing them chasing Arbrey down and shooting him. The public raised concerns about racial injustice and spurred law enforcement officials to finally arrest the McMichaels two days later. 

They were charged with murder and aggravated assault - 74 days later. “I think had we not seen that video, I don't believe that they would be charged," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding: “It's heartbreaking that it's 2020, and this was a lynching of an African-American man.”

Carr’s request Sunday included an investigation of the communications and discussions by and between district attorneys related to the case. [MORE]

In a statement on the Cobb County district attorney's Facebook page, Holmes said, "Our office will immediately gather all materials related to the investigation thus far and continue to seek additional information to move this case forward."

She added, "We appreciate the confidence that Attorney General Carr has in our office's ability to bring to light the justice that this case deserves." 

In a statement, the state attorney general thankedAtlantic Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Durden, who had led the case since mid-April, but added the "case has grown in size and magnitude since he accepted." Carr said that "another office is better suited from a resource perspective to now handle the case."

Holmes has led the Cobb County District Attorney's Office since July. She previously was both a prosecutor and defense lawyer in the county, according to her biography on the county website. [MORE] Said bio explains that Holmes was sworn in as District Attorney of the Cobb Judicial Circuit less than a year ago on July 1, 2019.